When my clients want to start a consulting practice, I ask them to write their business plan on an index card. Then expand it up to a full page. If that makes sense, expand to three pages, and so on. It hardly makes sense to write a 300-page business plan if the concept doesn't make sense on an index card.

This is a trial text for advertising. Writing something like this for your practice—doing the intellectual exercise of refining what you do and who you are into 50 words—is an excellent way to clarify and focus your attention and energy. Although this text is outdated, the concept still works.